DC's Resurrection of a Major Batman Villain Opens a Giant Plot Hole Question
DC's latest resurrection of a major Batman villain is raising some big plot hole questions. If you haven't been keeping up with the expanded Batman Universe within DC's line, there have been some big developments for key characters in Batman's life – such as Jim Gordon and The Joker, have been locked in an international game of manhunt in DC's Joker series. Now, with Joker #12, we finally get to the heart of the case that Gordon has been working on: who is behind the A-Day massacre at Arkham Asylum, and the true mastermind who sent him chasing Joker.
(WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
As it turns out, the person backing the mysterious woman Cressida Clarke and her Court of Owls cohorts is none other than... Bane!
Jim Gordon puts the pieces together before having a meeting with Cressida and her "bodyguard" (Bane), in a high-stakes gamble to save the life of his daughter Barbara and other allies Cressida has hostage. This is something of a big twist – and seemingly a major plot hole that is now in need of filling.
Bane was imprisoned in Arkham Asylum at the end of the "City of Bane" story arc, where the villain partnered with Batman's alt-universe father Thomas Wayne/Batman, and was responsible for the murder of Alfred Pennyworth. Bane was (seemingly) killed in the "A-Day" massacre, as guard (and future Peacekeeper) Sean Mahoney discovers Bane Jokerized corpse still in his shackles.
Another current DC title connected to the Batman Universe is Task Force Z, a zombified version of The Suicide Squad utilizing Batman Universe characters that have been killed off and/or resurrected before. The zombie squad is led by Jason Todd/Red Hood and includes Man-Bat, Deadshot, Arkham Knight, and (of course) Bane. In fact, the Task Force Z comic series made Red Hood's beef with Bane being on the team one of its central subplots – that is, until Jason betrayed Zombie-Bane and threw him off a building.
So how can Bane be both a zombie and a villain mastermind who is now seemingly running a crime ring that has the Court of Owls under thumb? The answer to that "plot hole" may be found in the details of both the Joker series and Task Force Z series that have to do with cloning and/or resurrection...
Jim Gordon's investigation has turned up a major villain cloning ring that has been operating underground. That program created "Vengeance," a female clone of Bane who was a featured villain of the Joker series arc. If Bane is behind it all, then he clearly has access to Clones of himself, and would therefore be able to easily swap out his "real" self for a clone who was left in Arkham Asylum after City of Bane (or perhaps even before that).
That clone Bane could have in fact been meant to die in Bane's A-Day frame of The Joker, in order to give the villain a clean slate to operate from the shadows. Two-Face (the other Batman villain who recently made a surprise return) may have had no idea about Bane's switch, and resurrected Clone Bane for Task Force Z.
We'll soon get some firmer answers – from both the Joker and Task Force Z books. Both are available from DC Comics.